The Destination in Officiating
As much I wish I was at the beach, I’m relegated to a Moe’s Southwest Grill laying it down on an iPad. I don’t even know the direction of the writ, as we speak, but I know what my destination. This is the start, and I know where the end needs to be. Just trying to figure the body.
“Baby, why don’t you just meet me in the middle?
I’m losing my mind just a little
So why don’t you just meet me in the middle?
In the middle?” – Maren Morris
Yesterday was a typical day, except for the atypical event that I was fortunate to record a podcast with my High School Basketball Coach, Coach Curtin. And it’s apropos that he put me on to something extraordinary, as he always put the kids he coached on a philosophical journey that may have lay dormant to me at the time, but resonates me as a grown man.
“To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself.”
– Søren Kierkegaard
He was impressed by the confidence I exuded in being the host of The Rant, and was impressed by the aesthetic of RefereeRant. I was able to show him, from soup to nuts, all the blood, tears, and sweats that equate to the site. I haven’t had time to marvel at what Christian and I have done. I been too busy working.
“All that I wanted from you was to gimme
Something that’s I never had
Something that you’ve never seen
Something that you’ve never been
But I wake up and everything’s wrong”
– Rihanna, Work
Albeit officiating is a microcosm in life, the words he spat to me, after we pressed top on the record button, resonated with both officiating, and life, one and the same: I have the exact lexicon jumbled in my brain, but here goes:
“Life is like a GPS. You have a destination, then what do you do?”
I thought to myself, and said aloud: “You pop in the coordinates.”
He continued. “Right! And you have no idea how to get there. It’s so good that even if you make a wrong turn, it DETOURS you, like it was never wrong! It just keeps going!”
That resonated to me in real time, and for all time. This week alone, I think about the overwhelming feedback of the Website, the Podcast, and officiating at it’s totality, and it stems from a boldness of executing an idea that was just a fleeting thought in my mind that I decided to write and remember when I was half-asleep.
And so, the importance of the GPS: The destination is important. How you get there don’t matter.
And before that moment, when coach Curtin said those words, I thought about his life, and how enthusiastic and forthright about his imperfections, as well as his great victories. He’s a great father, great coach, and great businessman. He’s made mistakes in his days, and I think his greatest success is admitting that he is not perfect. There’s a parallel lesson in the refereeing game. Some want to be pro officials; some want to do 2000 games in a year. Suffice to say, we all have different motivations that drive us, but no matter what it is, we have to do just that. Drive.
“If you can’t fly, then run, if you can’t walk run, then walk, if you can’t walk, then crawl, but by all means keep moving.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
::DESTINATION EXAMPLE::
For one, there is no destination if you don’t know where you are going. Once you do have that purpose in destination, then things become lucid by the minute. Take, for instance, my new goal of getting certified for Women’s Lacrosse. Let’s go over what that entailed.
Talked to some of my fellow officials that are currently certified in Women’s Lacrosse. What is their feedback from the class? What is their experience in officiating the sport? Do they like it? Is it fun?
Find out what the class entails: Who teaches it? How much does it cost? How many classes are their?
It already seems clearer to me.
Now comes the part of figuring out how to make it work. The class has multiple dates starting in January, which will eat in to time that I would be officiating? Sounds like a roadblock, a detour, where I would just have to reroute what I would normally do, to get to where I want to go.
The thought of being a Lacrosse official proliferated, many times over. Not because of just thinking about it, with inaction. There was imperfect inaction that led me to plan ahead, to get to where I want to go, that is, become a certified Lacrosse Official.
::DETOUR::
While recording a few future episodes of The Rant, I got to hear touching stories of fellow officials that I was fortunate to hear their stories in person, and record them for posterity. One was on the fast track of making the end point of their destination, while another discussed in detail of the detours they took in order to keep driving to the future destination that lay ahead. It’s a beautiful thing, to see, planned or unplanned, the hidden landmarks one gets to while driving to their destination, or where they will end up, when the realize the destination isn’t where they were supposed to be in the first place.
But what do you do in that situation?
Do you get disappointed when the ending isn’t what it was supposed to be? Everything happens for a reason they say. Failures are often beautiful like that. They often become the beginning of your greatest success.
“Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
:::ON THE ROAD:::
What’s your destination? How far do you want to take this? Do you want it to be a side gig, that affords you to buy Jordans? Is it a passion of yours, that you want to find like-minded individuals that share your pursuit for the highest levels of efficiency? Only you can decide what officiating means to you. One thing I do know. You won’t go anywhere, unless you drive.
“The only impossible journey is the one you never begin.” – Tony Robbins
Until tomorrow.
“The key to realizing a dream is to focus not on success but significance, and then even the small steps and little victories along your path
will take on greater meaning.” – Oprah Winfrey
